12/19/2006

Commitment to the future

Program helps get students on track to college

By
Record-Eagle staff writer

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Sam Hauxwell prepares a shrimp dish in a culinary arts class at Northwestern Michigan College's Great Lakes Culinary Institute.

She's also the first generation in her family to go to college — a fact that helped the Bellaire High School graduate earn a free ride as an NMC commitment scholar.

Since it began in 1993, the Commitment Scholarship Program has inducted more than 600 first-generation college students from the five-county Grand Traverse region. Students are selected by school counselors and principals while in the eighth grade, "coached” through high school and invited to participate in cultural enrichment opportunities like field trips and campus visits.

After high school graduation, those who have met all requirements receive scholarships to cover NMC tuition and fees.

Unlike other scholarships, the Commitment Scholarship is not awarded solely on financial need or academic performance, but takes into consideration several factors including family background and potential. Students from single-parent or rented homes, students who have a sibling or parent with a disability or chronic illness and students who have academic promise but aren't demonstrating it in the classroom are among those who are considered.

"We're looking at students who have the aptitude to succeed academically at a school of higher education,” said Jim Bensley, NMC admissions officer and director of the scholarship program. "That doesn't mean they necessarily have excellent grades in eighth grade but that they have a can-do attitude, a stick-to-itiveness or a desire to excel.”

Walton, 20, is one of three commitment scholars in her family. Sister Racheal, 21, is taking a break after attending NMC classes for about a year while 17-year-old sister Gabrielle, a senior in high school, plans to enroll this fall.

Although they both work and help their children as much as they can, Ruth Walton said she and her husband would have had a difficult time putting their daughters through college alone, especially without college educations of their own.

"When you have four children it is hard financially anyway,” said Walton, who works in housekeeping at Shanty Creek Resort. "To be honest, they would not have had a chance to go to college or it would have taken them much longer to get through.”

Sam Hauxwell, 20, is completing his first semester at NMC as a commitment scholar in the culinary arts program. Although he considers himself lucky, he said he only recently came to realize it.

"Back then it didn't mean a whole lot,” he said, referring to his induction into the program while attending Leland Community Schools. "I wasn't thinking about what I wanted to do.”

Now the scholarship means the difference between focusing on his studies and working them around the night shift somewhere, he said. It also means not having had to reach into his own pocket for material fees for his first two cooking and baking classes, which added up to $675.

"That's a lot on top of uniforms and books and knife and baking kits,” he said.

Last year, the NMC Foundation provided more than $56,000 in scholarship support for commitment students, said Kathleen Guy, the foundation's executive director. Funding for the program comes from memorial gifts, bequests and fundraising, such as the current annual campaign in which people can designate gifts specifically for the program.

While scholarships are awarded to 40 eighth-grade students a year, about 85 percent of commitment students choose to attend NMC, Bensley said. Some get scholarships to other schools or join the military; others don't go at all.

"We'd love to have them come to NMC, but if they go on and further their education, that is a success in our eyes also,” he said.

Based on programs like the Boston Compact, in which higher education pledged scholarships and priority admission for Boston public school graduates, the NMC Commitment Scholarship Program got its start under former president Tim Quinn. Independent businessman Ed Walker was one of its earliest supporters.

"I had past experiences that led me to a very strong interest in aiding people who fell through the cracks,” said Walker, then a member of the NMC Foundation board. "The goal was we'd catch them early, mentor them and then pay for their college education.”

Now Walker, owner of the Kingsley Club, holds an annual golf outing to help pay for social and cultural events each year that help bond the commitment students and expose them to experiences that will keep them focused on a college education. Destinations have included the Michigan History Museum and the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and the Shedd Aquarium and the John Hancock Center in Chicago.

"Many of these students haven't left their county because of their financial and family circumstances,” Bensley said. "We want to show them the world and give them an opportunity to see where an education can take them.”